Living life in Lagos (not the one in Portugal)…

Bloody Mosquitoes

About three weeks ago Baby V woke up with a whole lot of mosquito bites on his face.

I felt terrible. But also a bit confused. I spray the room every evening. I use mosquito cream on him and I put a mosquito patch on his pjs. So how did this happen?

I used Sudocrem on the bites and hoped that they’d disappear. But of course, it’s not the marks on his face that I was worried about – it’s malaria.

After that incident I increased the number of patches to three! One on the sheet near his head. Then a couple of hours later I’d stick one on his sleeve and then at about midnight (sometimes later) I’d add another. But now that he’s moving around so much, I don’t stick them on the sheets any more.

Anyway, a couple of days after the bite marks disappeared I was feeling better about the whole thing when I thought I’d better check how long it takes for malaria to develop. When would I see the signs? Two to three weeks. That’s a long time to worry about whether your baby is going to get malaria or not!

There were no more mosquito incidents after that. Until two nights ago. He woke yesterday to a bite on each cheek, two on his chin and one on the eyebrow. WHY is this still happening? Even after spraying the room – sometimes twice. And after increasing the use of the cream. And after increasing the number of patches?

Someone did recommend using a mosquito net to cover the cot – but with the amount of times he’s been waking, I don’t think it would really help much. And wouldn’t he feel claustrophobic?